Skip to main content

Europe and Brazil implement open-access railway concession model

Brazil's ground transport agency ANTT and the European Railway Agency (ERA) have signed a memorandum of understanding and are working together to implement ANTT’s open-access railway concession model. The agreement calls for cooperation between regulators and for issues relating to technical requirements and standards to be addressed. Previously, Brazil's railway concessions included both the building and operating of railroads in one contract. Open-access, however, separates the transportation of car
September 30, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Brazil's ground transport agency ANTT and the European Railway Agency (ERA) have signed a memorandum of understanding and are working together to implement ANTT’s open-access railway concession model.

The agreement calls for cooperation between regulators and for issues relating to technical requirements and standards to be addressed.

Previously, Brazil's railway concessions included both the building and operating of railroads in one contract. Open-access, however, separates the transportation of cargo from the building and operating of lines. The new model is expected to open up more cargo handling opportunities, increase logistics efficiency, reduce freight costs, and improve Brazil's competitiveness.

While open-access is already widely adopted in Europe, ANTT launched its model in June, calling for independent railway operators to express their interest in freight transport along a stretch of the Norte-Sul railway built by federal rail company Valec.

The open access model, which is part of Brazil's overall strategy to improve its rail network, falls under the national logistics improvement plan, under which some US$40.9 billion has been earmarked to build and improve approximately 11,000 kilometres of railways.

Related Content

  • Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    August 8, 2017
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces
  • Traffic monitoring and hard shoulder running
    March 1, 2013
    Hard shoulder running is on the increase – and the detection and monitoring of incidents on affected roads is occupying the minds of experts across Europe and the US
  • Central Europe signs up to ITS standards
    May 31, 2013
    Seamless multi-modal traveller information services are becoming reality in the Danube Region. On 15th of March 2013, a Hungarian national holiday of which many people were unaware, unexpected extreme winter weather paralysed Hungary as well as large parts of Slovakia. Several thousand people were stranded on the region’s highways and the railways incurred delays of several hours. Not only did the transport system in the affected regions break down, the information flow to neighbouring countries was very sl
  • Finland and Estonia link on transport projects 
    May 7, 2021
    MoU expected to create improved environment for applying European Union funding